The Memory Garden
by Sentimental Star
Summary: **COMPLETE** Four years after Nezumi took his heart, it is returned to him...:Reunionfic. Post-Series. One-Shot.:


**_Disclaimer:_** I own nothing in this marvelous universe; these boys belong to Asano Atsuko.

**_Author's Note:_** This little one-shot is inspired by an official picture from the anime that features Shion and Nezumi in a field of sunflowers. It was also inspired by the No.6 Tumblr community. Please enjoy-I know I certainly enjoyed writing it!

**_Rating: _**PG

**_Summary:_** Shion never forgot the first honest glimpse of Nezumi he saw that moonlit night, and four years later, a precious promise comes into fruition...(Reunion-fic. Mid-Series and Post-Series. One-Shot.)

_**"Speech"**_

_**/Personal Thoughts/**_

_The Memory Garden_

_By Sentimental Star_

**The Memory Garden**

_"Do you ever wonder what this place may have looked like fifty years ago? You know, before the Babylon Treaty?"_

_"Haa...?" Nezumi gave him a look that clearly stated he thought Shion had filled his head with _**_quite enough _**_air for the evening. "Why would I? I live here. Isn't that enough?"_

_Shion shut his eyes, for once ignoring the incredulous expression gracing his often taciturn roommate's face, tilting his head back and allowing his white hair to soak in the starlight and moonshine playing across it._

_He barely noticed when Nezumi almost immediately fell silent, and remained completely oblivious to the sudden and rare blush that spread across the other sixteen-year-old's cheeks as he watched him._

_"It's plenty," Shion assured him quietly, continuing to stand there and soak up the moon's light and the stars' shimmer, blissfully unaware of the effect he had on his silent watcher. "Just...are you never curious? Do you never sometimes wish to see the places, the memories that your books talk about?"_

_Nezumi glanced away, the blush still prominent on his cheekbones, and tucked the loose strands of raven hair tumbling around his face back into their ponytail. "Not...really. I've never had time to 'wonder,' Shion. It's always been 'how do I survive?' and 'what do I need to do to live until tomorrow?' You should know that by now. Besides...I don't really need to wonder about this place." Nezumi's lips curled bitterly, "It's not someplace that deserves much thought."_

_Shion disagreed, but thought it pointless to say so. He bent down and ran his fingers through the crumbling soil at his feet, feeling its damp thickness trickle between his fingers, "It's amazing something this rich can still exist amidst all this desolation. Though...I suppose it's had some years to accumulate, hasn't it? All that detritus-"_

_Nezumi snorted, dragging his boot through the dirt of the ground beneath the swing where he sat, "There you go with all that academic speak again, not to mention your vocabulary of an ape."_

_Sudden laughter burst out from Shion's lips and he opened his eyes to glance warmly across the foot and a half distance separating their swings. "Not hardly, Nezumi. I highly doubt an ape would know what 'detritus' means, let alone the fact that you need it to start forming a compost-"_

_Nezumi's own sudden laughter poured through his lips, rather sweet and unexpected, and Shion felt his cheeks warm as the actor all but toppled from his swing, giving free reign to his merriment._

_"You...Shion, you...I've never...ever...laughed..._**_so much_**_...since-"_

_Shion hadn't found what he said all that funny, but Nezumi apparently had, and he felt his own lips tug upwards into a small smile as he watched him._

_When Nezumi recovered enough to swipe at his eyes and glance up at Shion from the ground, the smile still played around his mouth and, by now, had begun to dance in his eyes._

_Nezumi scowled-rather childlike, since his cheeks still carried color from his bout of mirth-and demanded, "Why are you looking at me like that?"_

_Shion's smile remained, "Moonlight...makes you rather honest."_

_Nezumi, unfortunately, had no response for that, save for heightened color leaping into his cheeks, and a swill of embarrassment in his stomach, "So very pleased to be of service, Your Highness. Shall I leave you here in your garden contemplating whole truths and abscond to bed?"_

_Shion leaned against the rusty chain of his swing and watched Nezumi with shining red eyes as starlight caught and sparked in orbs of gray. "By all means, go ahead."_

_Despite Shion's clear encouragement to head back, Nezumi remained seated a full five minutes before standing and brushing off his legs. A long, slender hand held itself out to Shion, who bit back a small smirk, and took it to follow Nezumi home._

_/A garden, huh? I wonder what that would look like?/_

_Behind him, two swings blew and tangled together in the wind._

IOIOIOIOIOI

(Four Years Later)

"_Phew_ !" Shion sat back on his heels and swiped an arm across his forehead, leaving a smear of dirt in its wake. He had long since rolled his white shirt's sleeves above his elbows, and he contemplated removing the shirt entirely, but then recalled he hadn't had much exposure to the sun recently. With a sigh, he ultimately decided to leave it on.

Bending forward once more, he worked diligently at uprooting several stubborn weeds that had grown up since he had last visited this particular hill. Around him, spreading for hundreds of feet in either direction, as far as his eyes could see, dozens upon dozens of sunflowers bobbed their sunburst-colored heads in the light spring breeze.

/It's been four years. I wonder how he's doing? I wonder if he'd appreciate what we've done.../

Today, as far as Shion could tell, he was the only one out here. Everyone else had remained in the city, working on preparations for the Commemoration.

His mother had her hands full, trying to keep up with the demand for cakes and breads. Fortunately, Lili was there to help her. He even thought he recalled her saying something about Inukashi and Rikiga stopping by with Shionn later on that afternoon. He'd have to make sure he returned in time to see them.

This...Memory Garden, for lack of a better term, had been one of his pet projects. Tomorrow morning, hundreds of other visitors would wind their way through the tall, leafy stems, but for the moment, he was alone.

Though, not for long, apparently. A quiet cheep came from his elbow.

/Tsukiyo...?/ he wondered, turning to glance down at the mouse. /Why would he be out here?/

A flash of startling white fur against a background of green caused his jaw to drop.

"Hamlet...?" he whispered disbelievingly. The spade he'd been using to weed dropped point first into the ground, narrowly avoiding the mouse.

Hamlet shook himself and chirped, leaping to Shion's shoulder in one bound. Another cheep, and the mouse's whiskers tickled his chin. "Wait. If you're here, that must mean-"

"So...are there any asters out here?"

The voice the wind carried to him held a tone that was at once both deep and mellow, a tender tenor that Shion had scarcely dared hope he would hear again.

Slowly, on shaking legs, he climbed to his feet and turned as if in a haze, "Nezumi...?" the breeze swirled around him, stealing the name from his lips.

Gray eyes crinkled at the corners, brimming with sunshine and laughter as they never had in the West Block except for that one moonlit night. A slender hand reached out and tucked the swirling white strands around his face behind his ear, "Oh...there you are. I was beginning to wonder if you'd been lost among the sunflowers~"

"_Nezumi_...?" another crinkle of gray eyes. Shion grabbed onto his hand and didn't let it go, "**_Nezumi_**...! What..._what are you_ _doing_ _here_?"

Nezumi puffed out his cheeks in a pout. "So rude!" Those gray eyes suddenly sparkled with laughter, "I came home, of course. What else would you expect? I can apologize if you like, your Majesty~"

_THWUMP_!

Nezumi went staggering back, Shion clinging to his middle, and nearly crushed half a dozen sunflowers as he fell. "Well..." he managed, once he had his breath back, "I'll take that as a 'no.'"

Shion's shoulders started shaking underneath his hands. Nezumi's eyes sharpened with concern, "Shion...?"

He gave the slim body on top of him a gentle shake, trying in vain to catch a glimpse of Shion's face. The other twenty-year-old's head suddenly lifted itself from his chest and pure, unbridled laughter poured out around their miniature clearing, " _Nezumi_... ! It really _is_ you!"

A bewildered Nezumi, who had expected quite a different reaction, tilted his head to the side and graced Shion with a slightly exasperated look, "You were expecting someone else?"

More laughter, "Of course not! I'm _so happy_ to see you...!"

Nezumi raised his hand and tangled his fingers gently in Shion's hair, the exasperation on his face easing considerably as he allowed himself to fully take in the laughing man above him, "Four years...and you still have the vocabulary of a newborn chimpanzee." His fingers brushed yellow petals off of Shion's shoulders and out of his hair, "You have petals all over you."

Shion, who had begun scowling the moment Nezumi mentioned a 'newborn chimpanzee,' suddenly beamed down at him, "But they're so pretty, Nezumi!"

With that, he hopped up, gently hauling Nezumi to his feet, and spun around, spreading out his hands and fingers to encompass the mass of gold surrounding them. "You see!" he laughed.

Sunshine danced across his shoulders, and slashed through his white hair, lending it an orange glow. Joyous laughter lit up his entire face, so much so that he completely missed Nezumi's response until the other young man quietly cleared his throat. "I know something that's prettier," he offered softly.

Startled, Shion stopped his impromptu dance: "Where?" he asked eagerly, thinking that it must be someplace he had seen on his travels.

Nezumi stretched out his hand and lightly snagged Shion's, using the momentum of the other young man's whirl to spin him into his arms.

Before Shion could decipher the difference between left and right, Nezumi leaned down and stopped the waterfall of questions sure to follow by grasping his face and kissing him soundly.

Shion's heart pounded into his throat. Nezumi's lips, although slightly weathered and chapped, pressed hard against his own and a hand crept down to the back of his neck, pushing him forward into their kiss. Shion was lucky he'd taken a breath just before, or else he'd surely have lost his footing by now.

Nezumi kept him there until both of them could barely breathe, and even then he pulled away only long enough to murmur against Shion's lips, "You."

_OWARI (THE END)_


End file.
